Dale Yu: Report from the Spiel des Jahres Award Ceremony

Well, it’s been a whirlwind week here in Berlin, but I’ve got a free hour in the Tegel airport awaiting my flight to Amsterdam, so I thought I’d try to give a quick rundown of the trip!  It’s probably an understatement to say that this was the best trip to Germany EVAR… Valerie and I were able to get in a few days of sightseeing before the big day, but I’m pretty sure that the average BGN reader will have about zero interest in that part of the trip – so I’ll save that portion for another day and get to the reason why most of you came to the column this week – to find out what happens at the SdJ award ceremony.

The “official” activities for the award started on Sunday evening.  The jury members sponsored a very nice gathering at one of the hotel restaurants, and they graciously provided all the beer and wine you could drink.  Though I wasn’t entirely sure, it appeared that invitees included all people that were involved with any of the five Recommended games for SdJ.  I would estimate that there were about 80 to 100 people there over the course of the evening – and when I went to bed around midnight – I think that there were still at least 25 people enjoying the evening.  There was only a short formal program at this reception – the current speaker of the Jury, Bernhard Löhlein, welcomed us all and then made a quick introduction to the new jury members on both the SdJ and the KSdJ.  After this five-minute speech, the rest of the evening was devoted to casual conversation. 

While I spent the bulk of the evening with my partners from Rio Grande Games and Hans im Gluck, it was also nice to talk to some game designers (Vlaada Chvatil, Nick Kellet from Gift Trap, Reiner Knizia, Andrea Meyer, and Friedemann Friese) as well as some of the SdJ jury members and other industry folk.  It was nice that most people could speak English, and we were generally included in most of the conversation.  The evening also turned out to be a great night to try out some of the local beer – at least 2 glasses each of the 4 varieties on tap as well of one glass of the best alcohol-free beer I’ve ever had.

After having the 8 (or so) beers, it was clearly time for bed – but it was definitely a sleepless night as dreams of poppels dominated the night.  Lucky for me, we had to be up by 8AM in order to get ready for the “dress rehersal” which started at 9:30 on Monday morning.  We were ushered into the press room and we quickly reviewed the protocol for the press conference which was to start in an hour.  The room itself was a good size, with a large stage/podium at the front of the room.  The left side of the stage was devoted to the SdJ and there was a table in front of the stage which held the five Nominate games as well as the 2 special prizes (Space Alert and Gift Trap).  The right side of the stage had the podium and backdrop for the Kinderspiel des Jahres.  There was also a display of the five finalists for that award on that side of the room.  Then, there was probably seating for 80 in the front half of the room.  Like any good wedding, the first two rows were reserved for the folks involved with the finalists for each award.  The back half of the room was filled with long tables for the press and then a camera stand at the very rear for cameras (both still and video).

The rehearsal did not take very long (as the actual presentation would only take about 25-30 minutes), so when it was done, Valerie, Jay and I went out the hotel lobby to nervously wait for the award. Bernd Brunnhofer from Hans im Gluck came to join us.  This turned out to be quite nice as Bernd was able to explain the details from the rehearsal to us (as it was done completely in German, I only had a general idea of what, if anything, I would be expected to do at the press conference).  This little coffee break turned out to be the longest half an hour of the week.  We all tried to make small talk, but it was clear that everyone was preoccupied with the increasing excitedness/nervousness of the morning. One double espresso (and two bathroom breaks) later, it was time to return to the room for the big press conference.

While we were sitting outside trying to enjoy our coffee, the surprising large press corps had managed to assemble in the room.  I would estimate that there were at least 30 newspaper/magazine reporters there as well as at least 4 radio crews and 6 television cameras/crews.  I think that I recognized the logo of every TV channel I remembered from surfing the hotel TV (except Eurosport and the soft-porn channel).  Every seat in the room had been taken and there were still at least 40 to 50 people standing around the edges of the room.  It was frankly amazing to see the level of coverage for the award – and if I hadn’t have been so nervous myself, I would have paid a lot more attention to the amount of press that were there.  It certainly dwarfs any amount of coverage I’ve seen for gaming back home.

Anyways, we had to shimmy our way through the throng of reporters to take our seats in the very front of the room.  Bernd had comandeered seats in the very front right corner of the room.  As Bernd had the honor of having two games on the short list, he sat between Jay and Ralf zu Linde & Wolfgang Sentker, the designers of Finca.  It took a good ten minutes to get everyone in the room and situated, but soon the program was underway. 

After a short introduction by the speaker of the Jury (and translated by Fritz Gruber into English), they moved right into the Kinderspiel des Jahres award.  The five games were announced alphabetically.  When each game was announced, the game designer and a representative from the publishing house came up to the podium.  At the same time, a short video (maybe 2 minutes in length) about the game was shown to give the journalists a brief idea of what the game was like.  All of the videos were produced by the jury, and I must say that they were very well done.  The videos all followed a similar format – they showed some actors playing the game while there was a narration over the top which described the gist of the game.  The final bit of each video was how many players could play the game, the recommended ages and the MSRP of the game.  Though I was familiar with 10 of the 12 games prior to the press conference, I could see how these well produced videos could quickly introduce non-gamers to the games.  Even though I couldn’t understand much of the German narration, I got a really good feel for the two games I hadn’t seen before.

At the conclusion of the video, the speaker of the KsdJ jury then handed the designer/publisher a certificate proclaiming the nominated status for Kinderspiel des Jahres.  Finally, it was time for smiling, handshakes and pictures for the press.  This same protocol was followed for all five Nominated games.  After all the games had been announced, it was quickly onto the award.  There was a large poppel on the stage (at least 1 meter in height) which was covered by large black cloth.  The cloth was removed, and the game box for Das magische Labyrinth from Schmidt/Drei Magier Spiele was revealed as the winner followed by three or four minutes of exuberant cheering and another presentation.  The game designer and the Schmidt representative again came on stage.  This time, they each received a folder with a new certificate congratulating them on the Game of the Year.  Additionally, they were each given a huge wooden poppel which is the official trophy for the Spiel des Jahres.  The speaker of the jury then asked a few short questions of the designer and publisher, and then the KSdJ presentation concluded.

Once all the celebrating and picture taking were finished for the KSdJ, the program then moved on to recognize the two special awards from the jury this year.  The designers of Gift Trap and Space Alert were up on stage – along with representatives from CGE and Heidelberger.  Again, a short video was played for each game, and then all of the folks up there were given their poppel, certificate and a hearty handshake.

With the special awards out of the way, now it was time for the main award.  By this point, I’ll admit that I was really having time keeping my palms dry.  I really didn’t think that I was nervous when the morning started, but the anticipation kept building throughout the morning.  Now that the time had come for the award, I was pretty sure that I was hyperventilating with a heart rate in the 120s.  The only comforting fact was that Valerie looked to be in the same shape (or maybe worse?!) as me.  I couldn’t really see how Jay was doing (as he was sitting in front of me), but he seemed pretty fidgety as well.

As it turned out, Dominion was the first game alphabetically, so it was introduced first.  Donald Vaccarino, the designer of the game, was unable to make the press conference, so Bernd from HiG and Jay from RGG were invited up to the stage while the Dominion video played.  Now, I’m sure that my view of the video is a bit skewed because of my involvement with the game (and because I couldn’t understand too much of the German narration) – but the video sure seemed to focus on a lot of shuffling!  I started to panic because one of the most common complaints I hear about the game is on the frequency of shuffling, and I was worried that the jury would take the same stance.  However, the video (and shuffling) were blissfully over soon.  Once Jay and Bernd had received their certificates of nomination – all that was left to do was wait!

I’m pretty sure that the other four games were announced in alphabetical order and the appropriate people came up on stage, but I don’t remember any of it.  All I could focus on at this point was the huge cardboard poppel and trying to figure out what game box was affixed to it.  I spent what seemed like a good hour or so trying to decide whether I could really see a square shaped box hiding underneath the black covering cloth.  I was using all of my energy to try to see through that damned black cloth that I almost didn’t realize that all five games had been announced…

However, the complete and total hush that fell over the assembled crowd made it clear that something big was about to happen.  Oh, right – it was time to announce the winner of the Spiel des Jahres!  Hopefully I won’t be spoiling the surprise, but in what may have been the longest three seconds of my life – the cloth was removed and Dominion was the game affixed to the poppel!

There was pretty much mass jubilation in our little corner.  I remember giving just about everyone in our corner of the room a huge hug, and some friends who were seated closeby also joined in.  Then, before I knew it, Valerie, Jay, Bernd and myself were whisked up on stage for the presentation of the actual award!  Once up there, I was given one end of the SdJ certificates to hold onto and then all I remember is being blinded by about a thousand camera flashes.  Not being able to see anything, I just tried to make sure that I was smiling and spent a fair amount of enegry making sure that I wasn’t going to faint from the excitement.

Jay and Bernd were each asked a few questions about the game, and then before I knew it – the ceremony was over.  In fact, I was still standing in the middle of the stage with the rest of the team when I realized that half of the room had already stood up and was leaving through the back door into a small reception area.  We were instructed that we should also go out into the room, but Bernd was held up with multiple TV and radio interviews.  Valerie and I were approached by at least one TV crew for an interview as well, but sadly since we couldn’t speak enough German, they had to pass on interviewing us as apparently it would make for bad TV.

Once it became clear that we (Jay, Valerie and myself) were not necessary for the interviews, we pretty much just stood at a table near the Dominion booth.  The reception room was a large square room with booths for all of the nominated games as well as the two special awards.  Each booth had a copy of the game on display.  Press kits were available for the media to take for each game, and there were plenty of review copies there for the reporters to take home and get a better look at them.  There was also a nice buffet spread provided for a light lunch.

I spent most of the rest of the day in a daze.  For those of you that have met me before, you’ll probably know that I’m generally never at a lack of words.  But for much of the rest of the morning, I’m fairly certain I was standing in the room dumbstruck at the fact that Dominion had won the SdJ!  Valerie and Jay were in the same state of mind – so at least the awkward silence at our little table wasn’t just because of me!  As we were generally standing around the Dominion booth, most people found us there to offer congratulations.  Plenty of people came up to me and seemed to know me by name – which I was at first quite confused by (as I had NO idea who many of these people were) – but I was later reminded that not more than 10 minutes ago I had been standing in the middle of the stage having my name announced to the crowd.  Anyways, the reception was pretty open-ended, and it seemed to dwindle to a conclusion in about an hour.  To be honest, I think the real reason why people left was the buffet had been completely emptied of food and all of the booths had likewise been emptied of review copies of games.

That pretty much wraps up what happened at the Spiel des Jahres award ceremony.  I apologize for not taking any pictures, but it was kind of hard to concentrate that much on the journalistic stuff this year! Well, now it’s time to get to bed (have to be at work Wednesday morning!) and then I have to find a spot on the shelf for the big wooden poppel!  Before I forget, let me make sure to thank those people who helped me have one of the best experiences of my life (after marriage and the birth of my 2 kids)—Valerie for working with me as my partner, Donald for designing the game, Jay for asking Valerie (and I) to help take part, Bernd and the HiG crew for all their work making sure the game was viewed correctly by the German gamers, the playtesters on our side (esp. Sir Shufflesalot), and to all the gamers that have enjoyed the game and helped spread it to other gamers!  I’m not sure when I’ll ever make it to Berlin again, but it will be quite difficult to ever top this trip!

Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor

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